There will be an investment upwards of $3 million to refresh the interior of Kohl’s, which is committed to staying. It is one of the city’s most profitable stores, said Hillwood Vice President of Marketing and Business Development Ben Davis. Money will also go into the parking lot and the building’s exterior.
The only other tenant, Bass Pro Shop, will vacate its location to move to a new one being built in West Chester Twp.
Most of the former mall’s property, just more than 75%, is in the Hamilton County/Forest Park jurisdiction with the remainder inside Butler County and Fairfield. The property is zoned retail in both communities, but a developer will need to submit rezoning requests to Fairfield and Forest Park, then present them to the respective planning commissions, achieve recommendations to their city councils, and receive approval from those councils.
The site has development opportunities that are being discussed on both sides of the county line. It’s an incredibly large property with just one ownership group, and it fronts Interstate 275.
Hillwood made a presentation to Fairfield City Council, saying it envisions a Class A industrial park with four buildings on the former mall site. It will also meet with Forest Park’s leaders before submitting proposals.
The mall’s storied history
After the first phase of construction was complete, the property opened in July 1988 as Forest Fair Mall, a melding of the two cities the property resides: Forest Park and Fairfield. The next phase opened the following year. But within 15 years of its opening, and multiple attempts of redevelopment to fight decline, the property was sold, resold and resold again.
In late 2022, the Mills Corporation announced it bought the mall and would continue the redevelopment and reinvention, which included a name change to Cincinnati Mills. But the new paint, floors and signage didn’t help the property as businesses closed or relocated during the company’s five-year ownership.
In 2007, the Simon Property Group acquired the property with other Mills Corporation properties. But Simon Property sold it not even two years later in January 2009 to North Star Realty and renamed it Cincinnati Mall.
Under North Star’s short ownership tenure, most of the businesses that left relocated to Cincinnati Premium Outlets in Monroe. Others went out of business.
The owners became delinquent on their property taxes, and Cincinnati Holding Co. LLC bought the property, and has owned it ever since. But under the current ownership, the mall has fallen into further decline. The parking garage was closed by the Fairfield Fire Dept. because the fire suppression system continually failed and thus unsafe. The Forest Park Fire Dept. closed the interior of the mall for the same reason.
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